FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a prior art railcar load belt tie-down apparatus, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,465 issued Oct. 24, 1995. Railcar 10 has a flat deck 12 which extends between a pair of vertical bulkheads 14, 16 located at opposed ends of railcar 10. Bulkheads 14, 16 extend transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of railcar 10. Deck 12 is surfaced with a plurality of planks 20 fixed atop deck support stringers 22 which are in turn supported by transversely extending beams 24. Side sills 26, 28 are fixed to the outer ends of beams 24 and extend longitudinally along the outer upper edges of railcar 10, flush with deck 12.
A plurality of apertures 30 are provided in deck 12 by cutting away sections of planking 20 at pairs of transversely opposed intervals which are spaced along railcar 10 adjacent the respective side sills 26, 28 (only one pair of apertures 30 is shown in FIG. 2). At each transversely opposed pair of apertures 30, a belt 32 is secured at one end to a belt anchor 34 provided beneath one of apertures 30. Belt 32 extends upwardly through deck 12, over the load (shown schematically in dashed outline) and downwardly through the opposite deck aperture 30 to a belt tightener 46 which tensions belt 32 against the load. Optionally, belt 32 may pass through a belt router 48 before engaging belt tightener 46.
The present invention improves upon the prior art by providing belt tighteners (i.e. winches) at each end of each belt. This facilitates more even distribution of the belt tensioning forces applied to the belt since each belt can be tightened at both ends of the belt. To avoid loss or casual theft of the belts, one end of each belt is secured to one of the winches to prevent removal of the belt.